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House Bill 1295 |
House Author: Capriglione et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-15 |
Senate Sponsor: Hancock |
House Bill 1295 amends the Education Code and the Government Code to require a faculty member or other employee or appointee of a public institution of higher education who conducted or participated in sponsored research to disclose the identity of each sponsor of the research in any public communication regarding the results of such research; to prohibit a governmental entity or state agency, including a public institution of higher education, from entering into a contract with a business entity that requires an action or vote by the governing body of the governmental entity, agency, or institution before the contract may be signed or that has a value of at least $1 million unless the business entity submits a disclosure of interested parties, on a form prescribed by the Texas Ethics Commission, to the entity, agency, or institution at the time the business entity submits the signed contract to the entity, agency, or institution; to require an entity, agency, or institution to submit a copy of the disclosure to the commission within a specified period; and to exempt certain contracts from the prohibition.
The bill, among other provisions, prohibits a state agency that expends appropriated funds from entering into a research contract with a public institution of higher education if the contract contains a provision precluding public disclosure of any final data generated or produced in the course of executing the contract unless the agency makes certain determinations regarding the effects of premature disclosure of the data. A research contract between a public institution of higher education and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas is exempted from this prohibition.